Mary E. Chappell seeks a divorce from her husband Oliver. She complains that Oliver's conduct consists of "frequent intoxication, and cruel treatment, by abuse and personal violence." Mary states that Oliver "has inflicted blows & committed other personal violence on her person, resulting in bruises discernable by the public eye." Due to this treatment, Mary "forsook her husband" in 1852 and "took refuge with her parents," and "by her own exertions with a little assistance from others, she has until now, clothed & nurtured her infant children." Reporting that the court "recognized the necessity of the separation" in January 1855, Mary laments that her father and one of her children have died. She notes that her father left her "a small property ... but not sufficient to avoid the necessity of daily labour for her support." The petitioner therefore "feels it a duty incumbent upon her, in view of her future temporal and eternal wellfare, to demand from this court a decree divorcing her from the bed and board of her husband." She further asks the court to "set aside a portion of the defendant's estate," which includes seven slaves, "for the maintenance of your oratrix and the education & maintenance of the infant child."
Result: Dismissed.
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Repository: Circuit Court Clerk's Office, Petersburg, Virginia
